Information about Update 2.2.1

It has been a long week! We've made great headway on crash/performance fixes while also finishing our first update to Ascendancy. We expect to deploy this 2.2.1 update tomorrow. Today's news post explains some of the stuff we have fixed recently and gives a preview of what to expect in tomorrow's patch.

So far this week, we've deployed over ten patches to the realm that primarily address realm stability, client/instance crashes and performance. While we still have a way to go on some of these fronts, the experience is certainly a lot better than it was on launch day. We're really sorry about these problems. Honestly, our development ran too close to our internal deadline, and we are working hard to make sure that doesn't happen for future releases.

There's also an issue where the Steam version of Path of Exile takes a long time to update for some people even if we deploy a small patch. While we're trying to investigate why that occurs, we note that we won't be deploying so many tiny patches now that most problems are under control.

Here's a small preview of some of the changes in tomorrow's 2.2.1 update:

Cadiro may now sell you the map to his family estate.

Emperor Izaro has been made easier in Normal difficulty.

Enabled the Unique item Xirgil's Crank, which was disabled at the last minute before 2.2.0.

Many minor fixes to blockages and impassable paths in Labyrinth have been made.

Many more fixes to client and instance crashes have been included.

More performance improvements have been made related to Perandus packs and their preloading.

The Guardian of the Mound has returned in Normal difficulty (albeit slightly weaker).

Animated Guardians now take 90% reduced damage from Dart Traps.

There are now icons to show when Flesh Offering and Bone Offering affect you.

In other news, we have started the process going that allocates the Ascendancy points to Standard/Hardcore characters (described in Monday's news post. Most characters have received theirs so far, and the rest will soon.